In a heated debate over the role of parliament in deciding the terms of Brexit, Iain Duncan Smith called Keir Starmer, former director of public prosecutions, “a second-rate lawyer who doesn’t even understand the parliamentary process”
After Starmer criticised a statement by Brexit minister David Davis, who rejected calls for MPs to vote on negotiating terms, Smith said:
“May I congratulate my right honourable friend on his statement, and may I urge him to resist the temptation to take advice from a second-rate lawyer who doesn’t even understand the parliamentary process.”
Starmer’s Labour allies tweeted to defend him: